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THORNFALCON CP CHURCH LANE (North side)
ST22SE
5/138 Church of the Holy Cross
25.2.55
GV I
Parish church. C14-C15, restored 1882 by Benjamin Ferrey, tower restored 1912, church restored 1920, vestry added 1958.
Squared and coursed lias north and east ends, otherwise roughcast, tower rendered, Ham stone dressings, slate roofs,
coped verges, concrete tiles to vestry. West tower, 3-bay nave, south porch, chancel, north east vestry. Crenellated
3-stage tower, string course with gargoyles, set back buttresses rising to 2-light bell-openings with Somerset tracery,
single light trefoil-headed opening below, 3-light west window set on lintel of Tudor arch head doorway, decorated
spandrels and carved animals heads, aoulded plinth, north east stair turret, buttress at west end of nave inscribed
with date MCMXII and lead plaque below stating that this was the date of the tower restoration; 2-light window left of
single storey gabled porch without coped verges, moulded arched entrance, wagon roof, illegible oval lias tablet above
fine ribbed and studded late medieval door with original metalwork; to right lias tablet to Joseph Wood died 1817,
below small 2-light cinquefoil headed roof loft window with mullions set below eaves, buttress right, two 2-light
windows to diagonally buttressed chancel, 3-light east window, early C19 tablet to Joseph Webber, mid C20 vestry
addition with wooden 2-light window, wide stepped buttress on site of rood stair with wall to right partly rebuilt
below 2-light mullioned rood loft window, three 2-light windows to nave with stepped buttresses between. Interior:
chancel render grooved as ashlar, nave roughcast. Perpendicular chancel arch and moulded pointed tower arch. C16 ceiled
wagon roof to chancel, moulded ribs and wall plate, nave boarded wagon roof with earlier ribs, wall plate said to be
dated 1652. All nave windows with hoodmould terminals, mostly angels with shields, some knights and a bull. Moulded
doorway in north wall of chancel said to be excommunication door, now leading to vestry. Pointed arch rood stair
doorway with rood loft opening above, stairs thought to be intact. Chamfered 4-centred arch opening to west of present
entrance, thought to be for stairs to room above porch when a 2-storey porch was planned. To east of entrance chamfered
arched niche, thought to be a holy water stoop, Fine collection of bench ends, two dated 1542, others carved in similar
style by parishoners 1890-1914. C18 pulpit with Ionic fluted columns and some inlay in panels, said to imported from
another church in the late C19. C13 octagonal font. Stained glass in west window given by Miss Chisholm-Batten, died
1902. Hatchment. Ten Commandments painted on 2 tin sheets in the tower. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West
Somerset, l958; Kellys Directory, 1914).